More Than Friends
by Amy Raine
Summary: Zuko and Katara clarify their relationship while lost in the Lower Ring.


Katara was definitely lost.

To be fair, it had been three years since she had been in Ba Sing Se and most of that had been in the Upper Ring, save for the few hours they had run around putting up posters of Appa. The Lower Ring was basically a maze. A giant, smelly, unsolvable maze.

She clutched her half full basket of tarts tighter. Separating from Aang had been her idea, it was getting late and there were more orphanages and shelters than they had realized. Two years and there were still so many traumatized from one hundred years of constant warfare. So they had a plan: she would go down one narrow street, he'd go down the other, they'd meet back where they started once their baskets were empty. Katara found the orphanage, gave out the sweets to the beaming children inside, stayed for yet another cup of tea, and when she left she had somehow made a wrong turn. The moon was in her new phase and this part of the city was poorly lit. The stars above were her only guide. Too bad she had always been lousy at navigating by starlight.

"Katara?"

A familiar face appeared out of the dim, one golden eye partly closed by red, rough scar tissue that continued under the tousle of dark hair. Relief flooded her.

"Zuko!" She threw an arm around him. "I thought I was going to have to wake the guard, I'm completely lost."

"I'm sure Aang would have found you before too long." Once she has associated that gravelly deep tone with fear, now it was a comfort.

"Still, I'm glad to see you." Katara looked over his shoulder. "Where's Mai?"

"She didn't come. Not her thing."

"Doesn't like to mingle with common folk, you mean?" She had meant it as a joke, but realized how mean it sounded as soon as the words were out of her mouth."I'm sorry, that came out wrong."

"She's not used to it." He sounded defensive.

Katara tried to come up with something nice to say. "Toph seems to like her."

"They bonded when I had her come visit us last year. Got a lot in common."

"That's great." Desperate for a change of topic, she looked down at the large basket hanging off his arm. "You gave all yours away already?"

"Yeah. Knew where to go."

"Oh right. You lived here." She looked around at the tangle of tightly packed homes that would be tan and brown in the sunlight but were now various shades of gray. "What was it like?"

"Crowded. Noisy." He thought for a minute. "There were some nice parts."

"Can you show me?" Curiosity had always been one of her weaknesses. Or her strengths. Really depended on how you looked at it.

Zuko shrugged. "Sure." They went in the direction he had come from. All the roads looked the same to her, but he strolled through them confidently. At an intersection he paused. "Worked at that tea shop there." She peered into the window, but couldn't make out much of the interior. "I'm surprised it's still open," he said behind her. "Owner was a jerk."

"Where did you live?" she asked him.

"Down there." He pointed to a dilapidated looking building down a side alley. The blinds were drawn in most of the windows.

"Didn't you say you met Jet here?"

"On the ferry," he answered, "but he suspected us of being firebenders and tried to turn us in when he found us here. I fought him on this spot." Zuko paused at that, gazing around like he was lost in memory, and then he turned to her. "Did you ever find his friends?"

"Longshot and Smellerbee? We asked around back when we gathered here after your coronation, but they had already left the city. I hope we see them again someday."

He nodded and continued walking. Katara smiled as she hefted her basket and followed. Either he was all passion and fire or he was completely calm; there was really no in-between with him. But it was a friendly calm. Sometimes she still had trouble reconciling this Zuko with the young and angry prince she had first met, or the crowned, formal, solemn Fire Lord she saw in the great palace when she and Aang had found time to visit.

They turned, and turned again, trudging through endless narrow streets with the ramshackle buildings looming on either side. Suddenly the road opened into a circular area with a large fountain in the center. Squinting, she could make out some lamps standing around it and lanterns floating in the water, but no flame burned in them.

"That's pretty," she said, but Zuko was frowning.

"It's not lit. It's better when it's lit." Instanly he stepped forward, punching his fist out, and fire shot from it to the nearest lamp. He punched forward again and again in rapid succession. Soon all of them were shining. Katara gasped as the place was transformed into something out of a dream.

"How did you find this place?" she breathed.

"On a date." He rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "Make that two dates."

"A date?" she laughed. "You?"

He shot her a look. "Is that so hard to believe?"

"Well...yes."

Zuko seemed about to respond when a voice abruptly came from out of nowhere. "Hey, you kids! Don't you know what time it is? I'm gonna call the guard!"

"It would be a problem if the Fire Lord got arrested in the Earth Kingdom capital for disrupting the peace." he pointed out.

She took his hand. "Let's get out of here then." They sprinted away from the fountain and down several more streets before coming to rest in another alley. Against the wall she panted, trying to recover her breath, but Zuko barely seemed winded.

"You okay?" he asked her.

She straightened. "I'm fine." Was that a smile? Was he laughing at her? "It's not like waterbending requires sprinting!"

"Right." He stuck his head around the corner of the building. "Think we're okay now. But we should probably find Aang."

"Yeah." As they started walking again, she said, "I've always wondered something. Why did you help me find the man who killed my mother?"

"Um...I wanted to help you, I guess."

"Sure, but why?"

He drummed his fingers against his leg. "I...wanted you to like me."

"That's the part I don't understand. Aang liked you, and the rest of our group. Why did it matter what I thought?"

Zuko took so long to reply that she thought he wasn't going to answer her at all. "Because I didn't feel like I was truly accepted unless all of you accepted me. Because of the stuff you said to me in the catacombs. Because...I don't know. A lot of things. Do we have to talk about this?"

"Okay, okay, sorry." She switched her basket to her other arm, decided to try at more lighthearted conversation. "Remember that awful play we saw afterwards? You shut that thing down, right?"

"No, I let them continue."

"What?" She remembered the Ember Island Players' version of her and turned red. "But it's so full of errors...!"

"Errors which I've corrected in the official history. The play is now marketed as a parody. It's strange, but...when my people feel like they can laugh at me a little, they tend to be more loyal to the nation. I know that doesn't make sense, but..."

Katara's mind flashed to her father, with his bad jokes and wide grin, and the way the men of the village always had respect in their voices even when they were teasing him. "No, it makes perfect sense." She relaxed. "As long as we all know the truth. I mean, there's no way you and I would have really gotten together..."

She had gotten ahead several steps before she realized he had stopped behind her. "Zuko?"

He stood, his hands at his sides, in the green robes that served to mislead people about his true identity unless they got a very close look at that scar and those gold eyes, eyes that were focused on her now, making her squirm. "You're not seriously...I mean, you've never shown any interest and you'd get all huffy if anyone suggested..."

"If I had shown interest," he said quietly, "the fragile friendships I had with all of you would have been put in jeopardy."

"But...what about Mai..?"

That made him break his gaze and look away. "She sacrificed a lot for me at Boiling Rock. I love her. But for a while there, I wasn't sure if she was alive or if I'd ever see her again. And I didn't know about Aang's feelings for you. So...maybe...I thought about it once or twice. You know, curiosity." He rubbed the back of his head. "Sometimes guys wonder what a girl will be like, but they don't intend to seriously go after her..."

She glared at him. "So I'm not worth going after seriously?"

"What?" he sputtered. "That's not what I meant!"

She spun on her heel and marched up the road. He caught up. "Can we just forget I said anything?" he asked. "That was a long time ago."

Katara took a deep breath and tried to let her anger go like Aang had been teaching her. "Yeah. We were all a little messed up back then, what with...everything."

"So...we're still friends?"

Buried within Zuko's voice, the voice of a man just entering adulthood already burdened with the weight of rule and the welfare of thousands, was the hint of the lonely boy he used to be. Katara's heart melted and she stopped to face him.

"We're more than friends, Zuko," and she placed her hand over his chest, just below his heart, where she knew a certain scar was. "We're family."

"Katara?" came a familiar voice from up the road.

"Aang!"she exclaimed delightedly, and ran up to where the monk waited with a tender expression. He enveloped her in his arms, then gave Zuko a guileless smile. Katara, who had once stood taller than Aang, now fit her head comfortably into the hollow between his neck and shoulder. He smelled like sandalwood and safety.

"Hey there," he said to Zuko as she pulled back, one arm still around his waist. "Didn't know you had come too. Thanks for helping. I really mean that."

"Don't mention it," Zuko replied nonchalantly, but his expression softened and he clapped his friend on the shoulder.

"We'd better head back," Aang advised. "Everyone else is probably asleep by now."

The group headed for the nearest monorail station. Though no one was there to see them; if someone had been passing by at that moment, they would have noticed that the three of them walked in step, matching each other's stride.


End file.
